Westchester

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT WESTCHESTER - PAGE 2

Homeowners in a small unincorporated area near Westchester say they are being held hostage by the town, which is refusing to sell them much-needed Lake Michigan water unless they agree to an annexation with the village. The homeowners now rely on private shallow wells. Earlier this year, however, environmental authorities discovered two wells with dangerously high levels of vinyl chloride, an industrial solvent. Health officials urged the residents to drink only bottled water and to switch to a safe municipal water source as quickly as possible.

Some residents of Elementary School District 92 1/2 in Westchester have begun exploring the possibility of establishing a unit school district with its own high school. If successful, the effort could remove the village's students from Proviso West High School in Hillside, according to Sam Pulia, president of the District 92 1/2 board. Speaking for Proviso West, Wylmarie Sykes, president of the District 209 board, said she's "seeing racism" in the Westchester initiative, and blasted the idea as "ridiculous, very expensive and a duplication of efforts."

Dave Ricordati's children are only 9 and 4 years old, but already he's preparing for their high school years. As far as the Westchester resident is concerned, the public high school that they would attend-Proviso West High School in Hillside-is hardly an option. Maybe they'll go to a Catholic school or a Lutheran school in Westchester. Or they could go to a public high school in nearby Lyons. Better yet, they could go to their very own public high school for Westchester students only-an as-yet nonexistent school, that, they predict, would be free of the gangs, violence and low-achieving and low-income students present at the Proviso school.

The bits of prairie scattered on the outskirts of Chicago may offer some serenity in a sea of suburbia, but the largest prairie of its kind in Illinois is about to become the center of a battle that could be anything but tranquil. For years, developers, officials and conservationists went head-to-head over whether town houses and split-levels should cover some 80 acres along Wolf Road in west suburban Westchester on what is thought to be the largest remaining black soil prairie in the state.

Cindy Erwin was tired of having to shop at numerous stores to find gluten-free items. So Erwin, who has celiac disease and cannot eat gluten, opened Gluten-Free Grocery, a 1,400-square-foot storefront in west suburban Westchester. "We're carrying strictly products that serve as substitutions for products that have gluten in them," Erwin said. (Thus, you won't find produce or dairy items here because they are naturally gluten-free and readily sold elsewhere.) While many grocery chains might carry a few items from brands specializing in gluten-free food, Erwin sells a fuller line of products such as cookies, crackers, cake mixes, cereals and pastas from brands including as The Cravings Place, Pamela's Products Gluten-Free Pantry, Glutino, Enjoy Life, Bob's Red Mill and Kinnikinnick.

Westchester police said Thursday that further corroboration of previously collected evidence led to the decision to charge a former employee of a fast-food restaurant in the suburb with the slaying of his boss last spring. At a news conference in which little new information was disclosed, Westchester Police Lt. Sam Pulia said enough new data has been collected to charge Omar Johnson, 21, formerly of Broadview, in the slaying murder of Dorothy Jewula who owned the KFC franchise where Johnson worked as a cook.

Corn Products International Inc. soon will become the fourth major public food company in Illinois headed by a woman. Chicago business veteran Ilene Gordon, 55, will be taking over within weeks as president, chairwoman and chief executive, the Westchester-based sweetener and starch company told the Tribune on Monday. Her move extends a long track record that includes executive stints at Packaging Corp. of America and Pechiney Plastic Packaging. She leaves her current post as president and CEO of Rio Tinto's Alcan Packaging unit amid reports of its imminent sale to Australia's Amcor.

Many police officers and firefighters don't know who Fred Rafilson is, but they probably have taken one of his company's exams. Rafilson founded Industrial/Organizational Solutions Inc., a testing company in Westchester that specializes in helping police and fire departments across the country recruit and promote people. Rafilson and his 20 employees have toiled in obscurity until a lawsuit brought them unwanted attention. The company designed the test in a now well-known case involving a group of New Haven, Conn.